This Is Chronos Materia on PlayStation Vita

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From the house that Atelier built.

By Colin Moriarty

Japanese game developer Gust is best-known for its Atelier series, and its upcoming PlayStation Vita-exclusive title Chronos Materia has been turning a lot of heads since it was revealed in Japan a few weeks ago. Publisher Tecmo Koei was kind enough to provide IGN with a slew of new screenshots and artwork, as well as an extensive Japanese fact sheet for it, so we can give you some info about the game.

It’s worth noting, however, that Tecmo Koei currently has no plans to release Chronos Materia in the west.

The cast.

Chronos Materia is about a group of kids who are transported to a new world where civilization as they know it doesn’t exist. As the game’s title suggests, Chronos Materia is all about time travel, and these kids’ are charged with finding out how they got to this place and how they can return to their world.

Their adventure unleashes a torrent of RPG conventions, such as battling monsters and, not surprisingly, gathering items and synthesizing them, a popular element of Gust’s Atelier games. A type of character called Homunculus can be created through synthesis that can then be used in battle as proxies, and there are eight classes to choose from, including a Witch, Magical Swordsman, Summoner, Battle Maiden, and more. Interestingly, Homunculus not used in battle can be set to synthesize new items, weapons, and other gear automatically.

Time to synthesize!

Chronos Materia also totes an interesting time travel system in which characters can travel back in time to defeat monsters that were previously too powerful for them to deal with. It seems that this mechanic in particular will rest at the core of the game.

With publisher NIS recently announcing that it would bring two niche PS Vita games to the west in 2014 -- Demon Gaze and DanganRonpa: Trigger Happy Havoc -- there’s perhaps some hope that Tecmo Koei will port this game to the west as well. However, with the company declining to bring the Vita version of Pirate Warriors 2 westward, with only the PS3 version coming over, it’s not looking too good.

In-game.

Nonetheless, we wanted to put this game on your radar, because it looks (and sounds) pretty neat.

(Thank you to IGN's Meghan Sullivan for her invaluable knowledge of the Japanese language.)

Colin Moriarty is IGN’s Senior Editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.